A fairly long list things I produced, curated, promoted, spoke at, exhibited at, or was otherwise involved with in a meaningful way. It’s an incomplete list, but serves as a basic overview of my efforts in public programming.

Extended Play (EXP) was/is a celebration of longer-form audio recordings; it occurs when one of Earth's poles is at max tilt toward the Sun, and takes form as a DJ style event. The first extended play was organized by Ben Sisto, who DJs under the name Robert Rhymin’.

Design, branding, logos, and shirts for The Classic, a breakfast and lunch cafe in Providence, Rhode Island

atac is a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization in downtown Framingham, MA. Home to community-centered creative programs, artistic development, and work and volunteer opportunities, atac facilitates new possibilities for their community to access the transformative power of creativity. In different capacities, I worked at atac from the summer of 2022 to the fall of 2023.

Apollo 8 ephemera, collected in celebration of its 50th anniversary.

Paper and tape; fun to make.

A short collection of game-generated texts from 2009

A survey of used books over time.

While at Ace Hotel, one of my roles was to program the lobby DJs 5–7 nights per week. This was already in place, it had been fully developed and initially programmed by Greg Bresnitz. I chimed in on flyer design, but that was mostly handled by Ace’s in house creative team at Atelier Ace.

OPEN is a loose set of strategies for finding, documenting, and sharing things, with things defined in the loosest ways possible. Ideas, handhelds, memories, and monuments. OPEN is searching for new ways of searching; looking for new ways of looking. The project was established in 2025 by Ben Sisto, an artist and community organizer living in Providence, Rhode Island.

A movement-video mixtape for Capri by Night, projected at Schauspiel Köln / Offenbachplatz in Cologne, Germany.

In the fall of 2022 I was interested in exploring prompt-based image production using AI. I made a few every day, tracking both my understanding of the process and changes to the software—these are all done with Midjourney and/or Diffusion Bee. All images are from text prompts only; no reference images or other media.

Permanent Collection is a series of exhibits about things found, how they were found, and how what was found is shared. The first was held on September 19, 2012 in Brooklyn, New York at PACS Gallery and featured artworks artists had purchased, acquired in trade, or found in the trash. Ten years later, the project continues at an independent bookstore in Providence, Rhode Island.

A collection of postcards containing the phrase “Where Life is Worth Living.”

Portraits of pets, rendered in PETSCII.

PLURAL
Recent paintings and digital images by Willa Van Nostrand and Ben Sisto

The Gallery at City Hall
25 Dorrance Street, Providence, Rhode Island
May 18 – August 15, 2023
Reception May 18, 2023 from 4–6 PM

A collection of rock collections.

Pressure Burns is a collection of papers used for books that were initially bleached for whiteness. As decades pass, lignin, the natural binder in the wood pulp, oxidizes changing the color of the page from white to yellow or brown. These selections bring attention to random pressure marks created by years of stacking or shelving the books.

“Sometimes" is a set of 9 dice with the letters S, O, M, E, T, and I on the sides. Players are to roll all the dice together in the hopes of spelling the word “sometimes.” The work is also potentially self-signing, as another roll may spell out Sisto is me.” Players are free to make up additional rules.

Sonny Pro Bono Public Domain Sample Band produces public domain audio samples. The band was formed on the occasion of being invited to participate in Ace Hotel Pittsburgh's Artists in Residence program during the August of 2017. . The band consisted of Kid Millions, S.R. Palm, E.E., Ben Sisto, and Claire. Anyone is welcome to join the band, so long as the works produced are public domain, and some attempt is made to make them publicly available.

Slowly Sinking is an investigation and series of actions inspired by Charles Darwin’s book “The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms.” The project was carried out in London with my friend Vickie Hayward and included a earthworm health survey for the Earthworm Society of Britain, the burning of some sage, and a poem.

"Artist Ben Sisto is the world's leading expert on "Who Let the Dogs Out," as evidenced by his collection of over 250 pieces of memorabilia and artifacts. In this multimedia presentation, he tells the stories of musicians, lawyers and fans from all around the world, shining a light on the origins of that catchy pop abomination you're ashamed you can't stop yourself from singing along to." - Time Out New York

“What I’m Trying to Say” was produced for a website called Parallelograms.info, who sent me an image of an organist and asked me to create a web-based work in response to it. The project can be seen as documentation of how I surf the web; the things I enjoy clicking on and resulting connections made. The final stop was a performance with SR Palm.